I call bullshit. People don't read and read down into an article. Simon intentionally put a fake quote out there knowing it would be taken as real. You have to get 2/3 of the way into his piece to see the euthanize-cattle nudge. That's not the way people read these days.

This was a deliberate attempt to pollute the public debate, to promote Simon's candidate. He would never fun with Obama like that. He kept his deniability, but he put it way down where no one would read. His writing doesn't merit the click to page 2.

Not only does Simon need to be canned for this, but all the producers & researchers for the other shows who passed this too-good-to-be-true nugget up the food chain need to have their asses kicked, too.

Who wants to bet that this will be a debate question thrown at Romney.(besides all the contraception/abortion questions/Bain questions/47% quesitons)Watch. The leftwing hack media will continue to treat this as if the lie is real.

There was little on page one to give the average reader the idea this was satire. And while Simon is a lefty hack, he is a known political reporter who had to know his cache would cause confusion here. Would have been different if a comedian had penned this.

Just reflecting on my shot from the hip post and realize that I hit deeper than I thought. The movie "Tropic Thunder" was about a fake war story that while being made into a movie, gets conflated by the charismatic, but otherwise dim bulb actors as variations of reality. This was referred to as going "full retard" by the Downey character, who so enamored of minorities even though he was a blue eyed blond, dyed his skin mocha, affected a Texarcana accent, and stayed in character until the threat of real physical death broke him.

One of the few "Great" movie satires in a long time in my book.

Along with "Green Lantern"...what?...What?...What do you mean "Green Lantern" wasn't a satire? It really WAS that bad?

For a few measly millions, Wall Street not only bought itself a president, but got the start-up firm of B. H. Obama & Co. LLC to throw a cabinet into the deal, too — on remarkably generous terms. President Obama, for a guy prone to delivering prim and smug little homilies denouncing greed, greed, greed — the only of the seven deadly sins that truly offends Democrats (though Mrs. Obama has done some desultory work on gluttony) — is strangely comfortable among the Gordon Gekkos of this world. Shall we have a partial roll call?

What follows is a list of Obama financial officers and their Wall Street pedigree.

This guy's been around for over 30 years -- I remember reading his column in the Chicago Sun Times back in the early 1980s. He was something of a poor man's Mike Royko and his shtick back then was to suggest that someone or something that bothered him should be "beaten with sticks."

Perhaps this was Simon's idea of an october suprise--I am sure the dems have an october surprise on the books: probably a picture of Mr Romeny drinking a cup of coffee or drinking a coke. Other than that they have exhausted the haircutting and dog thing. Not many arrows left in their quiver, although perhaps liawtha could provide some help--shee being cherokee and all that

Roger Simon lies. The bracketed text where he tries claiming it was a satirical piece was added long after the piece had begun drawing notice--and criticism. I know, because I started writing a response at 10:00AM. Just look at the update time the column is sporting; it confirms he put the "hey, this is satire, guys!" after the horse was out of the barn.

What is so bad about the corrupt liberal media is that most people regardless of how smart they are don't read very much. They get most of their news from TV and so most of them are getting the liberal spin.

Most people don't even know that we had low unemployment in the Bush years about as good as the Clinton years but the liberal media had them all pissed off about the Iraq war. Most people dance to the tune of the liberal media. Sometimes I will hear someone who I know is conservative parroting some liberal crap they've heard on TV.

People expect you to swallow such garbage these days, like the "Rich" pay their share, when they are accumulating massive amounts of wealth, and paying 17% on their income (that is, what gains they take), compared to a married filing jointly couple paying up to 37% of their gross income.

Or Multi-Culturalism, and its evil cousin PC Ism, in which "Blacks can't be racist."

As an example, today I was told by a leftist that the reason Obamacare was so screwed up is because of uncompromising Republicans. That would be a joke in another time, but here the person is saying something he actually believes, and he isn't stupid either.

People expect you to swallow such garbage these days, like the "Rich" pay their share, when they are accumulating massive amounts of wealth, and paying 17% on their income (that is, what gains they take), compared to a married filing jointly couple paying up to 37% of their gross income.

Or Multi-Culturalism, and its evil cousin PC Ism, in which "Blacks can't be racist."

As an example, today I was told by a leftist that the reason Obamacare was so screwed up is because of uncompromising Republicans. That would be a joke in another time, but here the person is saying something he actually believes, and he isn't stupid either.

People expect you to swallow such garbage these days, like the "Rich" pay their share, when they are accumulating massive amounts of wealth, and paying 17% on their income (that is, what gains they take), compared to a married filing jointly couple paying up to 37% of their gross income.

I'm sorry -- was that whole thing meant as an example of the kind of garbage people swallow? It was worded oddly. :)

In defense of Simon, I would say that one way to tell your sarcasm isn't too heavy handed is when some people take it at face value. For the prosecution, I would argue that if most people don't get the joke, then it's not a joke. SO the question becomes is this a failed joke or agitprop? To prove that it's not agitprop, he should write a delicate satire about Obama butchering the White House dog, Bo, and serving it at a special meal with the winner of his dinner raffle.

What made it clear was the distancing he said is occurring between the R and R and then going on the the AARP boos. Right off at the top. Just bullshit right off. Who gets to the second page? Instead, I ask, who linked me to this obvious bullshit? And it's you, someone I like, but they are to be viewed with a jaundiced eye always. They made all that clear in the primaries where their chief interest was in serial elimination to Romney because he would be easiest to eliminate at last. Stage one complete, stage two in progress.

Mr. D said...This guy's been around for over 30 years -- I remember reading his column in the Chicago Sun Times back in the early 1980s. =============And he has known Axelrod that whole 30 years. Friends, fellow liberals, attended the same Synagogue in Chicago...that sort of stuff.

I see where Presidents McGovern, Gore and Kerry all endorsed Obama today. They were all very opitmistic about Obama's victory predicted by the current polls five weeks out. The media as always concured.

No one called anyone a victim. People are free not to listen to this stuff. I find Drudge and numerous Twitter feeds to be "better" news sources anyways. I put "better" in quotes because I think Drudge is going to get punked one of these days before November.

I enjoyed see that "newswoman" have her meltdown on the subway today. I hope it was the first of many on-air career suicides.*____________*Not suicide suicide, but oe McCarthy-style memorialized meltdowns. Good stuff!

And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything – everything I did, everything you saw – because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me.

~Apocalypse Now___________

I didn't (and refuse to) read the Simon "satire." But was he at all inspired by that Apocalypse Now quote? I thought the juxtaposition of "Willard" and "the stench" a little obvious.

I think Simon's piece was obvious satire on the first page--if you read past the first couple paragraphs.

Here's a question, then: what is it satirizing?

Obvious exaggeration for comic effect -- e.g., the PowerPoint and "bowl of farina" remarks -- isn't the same as satire. Snide remarks aren't the same as satire either. Simon's article reads like a generic left-wing attack on the Romney campaign. It could easily have been written by Paul Krugman (which may be why Krugman thought it was real too).

@Revenant: I quit reading the Onion because the stories they printed kept coming true. Specifically, they had one about fat people suing candy companies--this was at the time of the tobacco lawsuits. Only took about a year for it to come true with fat people suing McDonalds.

Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.”

Wait, Ann and all the people complaining were dumb enough to think this actually happened? You think Page 1 of this article isn't obviously satire?

Love how the lefties have reverted to their pathetic, tired, overused defense of "It's obviously irony! If you didn't get it, you're just not cool!"

It's how that ebola-worthy cretin, Jon Stewart, gets away with his propaganda, as do all leftist propagandists. "Did we go too far? Was it too far in disgust or too close to outright lying? Wel... we were being ironic! Yeah, that's the ticket! You're just too dumb to get how sarcastic we are! (Phew! Another crisis averted! Call David Axelrod, I want my check!)"

I've never seen an election so decided by the media. Maybe the economy is not so horrible as to cause the swing voters to want to overwhelmingly throw Obama out, but the media has been so one-sided that they can't help but think Romney is TEH EVIL.

"Andy R. said...Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.”

Wait, Ann and all the people complaining were dumb enough to think this actually happened? You think Page 1 of this article isn't obviously satire?

You people amaze me."

I forwarded your commnent to Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman and he replied "Tell him he can blow me."

I honestly think if various news media didn't do follow-up reports saying it was true, most people would not have been fooled. I initially read the piece after being forwarded to it by someone I trusted. I assumed that Simon just got it wrong and that Ryan was playing off the "Stench" quote like a friend who makes fun of another friend with a put down nickname. It wasn't until I got through the whole article that I realized the person linking me had been had.

Obama does something and it causes something to happen and Obama will be the first one to say he is not responsible.

The Solyndras (there is more than one), Fast & Furious, the jobs the 'stimulus' was supposed to create, the US credit downgrades, the runaway deficits, the steady above 8% unemployment, the Arab Spring tuning into winter.

Obama didnt 'build it', he had nothing to do with them, despite Obamas own Handel like chorus, four years ago, that his predecessor was responsible for everything wrong under the sun...

It is we that misunderstand him!

So when he continues to say that our ambassador was killed because of a video, we are most likely once again misunderstanding him.

I call bullshit. People don't read and read down into an article. Simon intentionally put a fake quote out there knowing it would be taken as real. You have to get 2/3 of the way into his piece to see the euthanize-cattle nudge. That's not the way people read these days.

Give it up. You're just embarrassed that you didn't even realize it was satire when you were commenting on an article that described the statement as satire.

Farmer,Everyone is capable of lying. Left/right/center whatever. The left love to lie. It is second nature to them and they have no problem embracing lies. They have no problem covering each other’s lies. They lie to themselves and others without a care in the world.Lying comes easy, and they are proven masters at it.

A lie can spread halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on.The left exploit this daily.

I wonder if Matt Lauer &/or Diane "OWS is spreading to thousands of countries!" Sawyer are going to cover this big story today on the AM shows?How will they spin it? Mention the quote as if it were real and then casually cut off the truthy part?

The Madonna "Obama black Muslim in the White House" comment is also part of what would call leading by misleading... a creation of a fake controversy in order get attention away from the disaster that has been this administration.

Its really easy... no need to collude... the tools are available to everyone... take to twitter say something to cause our hypersensitive sensibilities to go into overdrive... and then explain that it was satire.

My point being... dont fall for the chicanery... we are not like the hypersensitive Muslims... or are we?

There is ample precedence for this effect, and Simon knows it. Although SNL is a comedy show, and Tina Fey is a comedian, there are many people who believe that Sarah Palin is so stupid that she actually said that she could see Russia from her house in Alaska.

I looked at the Krugman post, and it's crazy that he fell for this. Maybe he is only book smart and not street smart.

What did CNN do with it? Did they run with it on air?

I guess at the point where a Republican is openly talking about the stench of Romney, maybe nothing is beyond the point of plausibility. When Republicans at a Republican campaign rally dislike Romney so much they won't chant his name, and the last VP nominee when rogue against her own candidate's wishes, perhaps the bar has been so lowered that satire writers have a higher standard in terms of what they say about a Republican campaign for it not to be mistaken as real reporting.

Apologies for suggesting that some/all of you were dumb enough to fall for this.

The inability to acknowledge you've been punked, rick-rolled, Simonized, etc. reveals an interesting character trait. It wasn't very good satire, but still should have been impossible to believe unless you wanted to believe, like Krugman.

I don't think the old saying that W mangled -- (fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me -- applies when the media is involved. The media is not trustworthy after hundreds of attempts to fool.

Blame yourself if you got punked. Maybe you're not as smart or savvy as you thought you were, or maybe you are too willing to accept things as true without sufficient basis to do so.

Although I understand why the professor linked to it... (or at least I think she did). Althouse is trying to uphold standards of fairness Politico and others treat like that stuff that comes out of your nose when you sneeze.

"Mitt Romney pointed to the health care law he signed as governor of Massachusetts one of his signature achievements Wednesday, a move that has drawn swift and strong rebuke from conservatives in the past."

"Mitt Romney pointed to the health care law he signed as governor of Massachusetts one of his signature achievements Wednesday, a move that has drawn swift and strong rebuke from conservatives in the past."

more to come...

Thanks for staying on fucking topic. You're as SQUIRRELLY!!!! as Garage.

They love lying because they never have anything to lose. It's easier to lie than look at the truth and if the truth isn't in their favor they will lie about it fabricate entire narratives and story lines out of whole cloth. It's what they do because being a leftard is easy. Everything is arbitrary and relative. Standards mean nothing to a leftard, this is how they can conceive these mental exercises and get away with it because their co-conspirators in the media will provide cover and shelter for them at ever step of the way.